From a Washington Post article about the effect of the government
shutdown on federal science:
In Alexandria, Va., the National Science Foundation headquarters is
closed. About 1,400 employees are furloughed, a spokesman said. “Ongoing
operational and administrative activities will be minimal unless the
suspension of these activities will imminently threaten the safety of
human life or the protection of property,” the agency said in a statement.
The NSF is a funding agency, and its closure will have a massive effect
on research if the shutdown lasts for an extended period. Review panels,
which convene to approve or reject scientific grant proposals, were not
scheduled in the final week of 2018. Should the shutdown extend into
2019, panels in January will have to be canceled and rescheduled,
disrupting the flow of science. The NSF does not distribute grant
payments to scientists during a shutdown.
The U.S. Antarctic Program remains operational “for the foreseeable
future,” according to a statement from Kelly Falkner, director of the
NSF’s Office of Polar Programs.
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, part of the Agriculture
Department, is running on a skeleton crew. Only four of the 399 NIFA
staff members, according to the USDA shutdown plan
<https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/usda-shutdown-plan-summary-2.pdf>,
report to work during a shutdown. As at the NSF, the NIFA grant program
tends to be quiet during the final week of the year — but January is a
critical time in its grant review process.
The Agriculture Department’s in-house body of scientists, the
Agricultural Research Service, shrinks by 82 percent to just over 1,100
people. Those exempt from the furlough will maintain laboratories,
greenhouses and care for research animals; there are time-sensitive data
to collect as well as crops and cells to tend. The USDA shutdown plan
allows studies involving human subjects to continue. The Agriculture
Department did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday, perhaps
because the USDA shutdown plan furloughs all but two of the 58 people
who work in its communications office.
Federal science agencies are “basically closed for business today,” Rep.
Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), the likely next chair of the House
Science Committee, said in a Dec. 22 statement. “As I’ve noted in
previous shutdowns, as our competitors in other countries surge ahead in
their R & D investments, we have basically shut down a large chunk of
our federal science and technology enterprise.”
Full article is at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/12/28/disruptive-disappointing-chaotic-shutdown-upends-scientific-research/?utm_term=.32fbbe2a8601
--
Dr. David W. Inouye
Professor Emeritus
Department of Biology
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-4415
ino...@umd.edu
Principal Investigator
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
PO Box 519
Crested Butte, CO 81224
